To be honest with you, there's nothing much to a sluice box. I bought a Keene and paid more the less for the name on it. I got a bigger one that a guy builds and sells on eBay and paid considerably less (could have bought 2 for what I gave for the Keene) and I like it better than the Keene because it's big. That's the main thing, you don't want to get one that is narrow because it simply takes too long to run material through it. I recommend one with at the very least, 10 inch wide shute. The wider they are, the more material you can run through without them stopping up. The gold catching material don't matter either; you can get replacement stuff for it at any prospecting store or online. I personally like the "miners moss" stuff but some prefer the indoor/outdoor carpet.

I have a small Keene sluice and 2 of the Bazooka sluices made in California.I really like the little one ( about 14 inches long) cause it is so easy to setup in a creek and with a couple rocks to hold it in place.You only have to classify to 1/4 inch for either one. No carpets or riffles to mess with. They catch fine gold real good altho the Bazookas do like a fast water flow. A slow moving creek won't work so well.

Kneene or Proline they are both good . I would try and find a good used one . I like the bigger ones myself , because you go thru material quicker , the more material you go thru the better your chances are . Good Luck ! Bert

Though my now X wife bought it for me as a gift some years ago, I wanted and she gave to me an A-52 Keene sluice box. I welded up out of scrap metal a stand for it with adjustable legs and just secure it to the stand with a rubber bungi cord. When empty, tends to want to hydro-plane out of position. When not in the stand, I use a heavy (maybe 10 lbs. or so) flat piece of iron layed across it to keep it down. Have also played a little with different materials to capture gold. The Gold here on the Salmon River is very fine. It's also hard here on the Salmon River to find a place with enough water volume to wash the material through it and still be near the material so not to pack in buckets or shovel it so far. In a narrow creek it would work much better and is why most on the river suction dredge. Pretty hard to dam off such a wide body of water to get the volume of water needed to wash your material through. Kind of like trying to sluice in the ocean.

As with some other brands, the A-52 can be added to with Keene or after market parts to make it a high banker or suction dredge if you the desire and money.

The Keene A52 is A-1,but....for testing...I use a LeTrap sluice.Plus side of plastic sluice-no carpet to clean out.
Keene does work in lower water flows and I find alot easier to setup.But the letrap is light for backpack sniping, its a little big,but i strap to my back pack and manage.
It beats gold panning out your sniping gravel.

called a waterflow table AKA miller table.
You use it to process your concentrate you get from a sluice.
Its consists of a header box-2 slow down water flow-reduce bubbles.
Then a sluice made of slate-also seen polar fleece.
You need to classfiy down to 60 mesh or something.
Then run over the miller table one table spoon at a time.

For more fine gold just use 3/4 expanded metal and 2 layer's of miner moss-one layer backed and another unbacked layer on top.You can also use v-rib carpet and unbacked miners moss on top.
You can use differant sizes of expanded metal 1" in rows starting at 1" and down to 3/16" stucco laft.Like a foot of 1" -2 feet of 3/4 inch,then 2 feet of 3/16" something like that.
Rifles are not needed if you only after fine gold.
most of the time 3/4 seems to work well for my area.

For me I use a LeTrap sluice and its awesome.5 years now and still works great.Had to fix one crack in her-but thats easily done with pvc pipe cement.Im not sure if teh angus ones can be fixed with pvc glue.

Willy, that is a good idea but there are two types of miners moss. One with a sealed bottom and one with an open weave on the bottom. If he hgets the moss with open bottom he will need to leave the green carpet under the moss or he will loose gold.

I am looking to build a 3 inch dredge and not sure of the best size sluice box to use. I have a 2 inch pump at 9540GPH and a 3inch power nozzle with 2.5 inch turn down. One size I am considering is a 45" long x12 inches wide. Looking for suggestions and input on optimal size. The area I am prospecting has a lot of fine gold with some pickers.